Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Metrication

Far be it from me to suggest that some of our nursing colleagues can be a bit dim at times. I know that any such suggestion is likely to invite a cyber kicking.

But what is it about nurses and their inability to understand metric units when it comes to patient height? Every week I see some howler written down. According to the recorded heights we regularly have patients who are 168metres tall, or 1.68 cm. And all sorts of other blatantly obvious errors. Surely they know what a centimetre is, or a metre. Don't they?

I'm not a nurse so don't have any axe to grind - but please also bear in mind that in outpatients at least the weighing is not necessarily done by a nurse. In a northeast hospital, I have been weighed by a volunteer - who appeared to be about 80 - who then put my notes to go to the wrong consultant waiting area. This was after another volunteer had called my name incorrectly and when corrected said "it's near enough". Result - I was in the diabetic clinic not the general medical clinic. I initiated a complaint (was encouraged to do so in fact). What happened? Nothing.